A friend of mine posted these "facts" on pigs/eating pork another forum. I find it a bit hard to believe that some of these are true. But I've never raised pigs before, so could the experts please comment on them?

A pig is a real garbage gut. It will eat anything including urine, excrement, dirt, decaying animal flesh, maggots, or decaying vegetables. They will even eat the cancerous growths off other pigs or animals.

The meat and fat of a pig absorbs toxins like a sponge. Their meat can be 30 times more toxic than beef or venison.

When eating beef or venison, it takes 8 to 9 hours to digest the meat so what little toxins are in the meat are slowly put into our system and can be filtered by the liver. But when pork is eaten, it takes only 4 hours to digest the meat. We thus get a much higher level of toxins within a shorter time.

Unlike other mammals, a pig does not sweat or perspire. Perspiration is a means by which toxins are removed from the body. Since a pig does not sweat, the toxins remain within its body and in the meat.

Pigs and swine are so poisonous that you can hardly kill them with strychnine or other poisons.

Farmers will often pen up pigs within a rattlesnake nest because the pigs will eat the snakes, and if bitten they will not be harmed by the venom.

When a pig is butchered, worms and insects take to its flesh sooner and faster than to other animal's flesh. In a few days the swine flesh is full of worms.

Swine and pigs have over a dozen parasites within them, such as tapeworms, flukes, worms, and trichinae. There is no safe temperature at which pork can be cooked to ensure that all these parasites, their cysts,and eggs will be killed.

Cows have a complex digestive system, having four stomachs. It thus takes over 24 hours to digest their vegetarian diet causing its food to be purified of toxins. In contrast, the swine's one stomach takes only about 4 hours to digest its foul diet, turning its toxic food into flesh.

The swine carries about 30 diseases which can be easily passed to humans.

The trichinae worm of the swine is microscopically small, and once ingested can lodge itself in our intestines, muscles, spinal cord or the brain. This results in the disease trichinosis. The symptoms are sometimes lacking, but when present they are mistaken for other diseases, such as typhoid, arthritis, rheumatism, gastritis, MS, meningitis, gall bladder trouble, or acute alcoholism.

The pig is so poisonous and filthy, that nature had to prepare him a sewer line or canal running down each leg with an outlet in the bottom of the foot. Out of this hole oozes pus and filth his body cannot pass into its system fast enough. Some of this pus gets into the meat of the pig.

A friend of mine posted these "facts" on pigs/eating pork another forum. I find it a bit hard to believe that some of these are true. But I've never raised pigs before, so could the experts please comment on them?

A pig is a real garbage gut. It will eat anything including urine, excrement, dirt, decaying animal flesh, maggots, or decaying vegetables. They will even eat the cancerous growths off other pigs or animals.

If fed where they go to the bathroom they will eat urine and feces, but only as a result of it being mixed with their food. (Cattle will do the same. Chickens will eat feces to get at the seeds and grass that are passed with the feces. Chickens also gobble maggots like popcorn.) Pigs will eat dirt that is on their food, grass, whatever else they eat but they do not eat dirt for its own sake. They will eat decaying flesh, love maggots and decaying vegetables. They will not eat the cancerous growths from other animals unless the animal is dead; they will consume whatever flesh remains.

The meat and fat of a pig absorbs toxins like a sponge. Their meat can be 30 times more toxic than beef or venison.

False.

When eating beef or venison, it takes 8 to 9 hours to digest the meat so what little toxins are in the meat are slowly put into our system and can be filtered by the liver. But when pork is eaten, it takes only 4 hours to digest the meat. We thus get a much higher level of toxins within a shorter time.

False.

Unlike other mammals, a pig does not sweat or perspire. Perspiration is a means by which toxins are removed from the body. Since a pig does not sweat, the toxins remain within its body and in the meat.

Pigs sweat, they just don't have as many sweat glands as we do. Their liver and kidneys filters out toxins just as ours do.

Pigs and swine are so poisonous that you can hardly kill them with strychnine or other poisons.

False. Pigs will die from just about any poisonous chemical or plant toxin. They have no special immunity to anything.

Farmers will often pen up pigs within a rattlesnake nest because the pigs will eat the snakes, and if bitten they will not be harmed by the venom.

False. Although pigs will eat snakes (chickens do the same) they have no immunity to snake venom. Farmers that pen hogs with rattlesnakes are stupid farmers.

When a pig is butchered, worms and insects take to its flesh sooner and faster than to other animal's flesh. In a few days the swine flesh is full of worms.

False. In a few days any decaying flesh is full of maggots and insects.

Swine and pigs have over a dozen parasites within them, such as tapeworms, flukes, worms, and trichinae. There is no safe temperature at which pork can be cooked to ensure that all these parasites, their cysts,and eggs will be killed.

True and False. Pigs can get internal parasites just as any animal can, including humans. Pork cooked to 160 degrees Fahrenheit will kill all bacteria, viruses and parasites.

Partially true. A four ounce pork chop has 7 grams of fat. One four ounce rib has 18 grams.

Cows have a complex digestive system, having four stomachs. It thus takes over 24 hours to digest their vegetarian diet causing its food to be purified of toxins. In contrast, the swine's one stomach takes only about 4 hours to digest its foul diet, turning its toxic food into flesh.

True at least in part. The digestive times are accurate. However, most pigs are fed a vegetarian diet and their liver filters out all toxins.

The swine carries about 30 diseases which can be easily passed to humans.

Regarding swine flu, there have only been 50 reported cases on transmission from pigs to humans in the past seventy years. There is more risk that an infected human would pass it to pigs.

The trichinae worm of the swine is microscopically small, and once ingested can lodge itself in our intestines, muscles, spinal cord or the brain. This results in the disease trichinosis. The symptoms are sometimes lacking, but when present they are mistaken for other diseases, such as typhoid, arthritis, rheumatism, gastritis, MS, meningitis, gall bladder trouble, or acute alcoholism.

True.

The pig is so poisonous and filthy, that nature had to prepare him a sewer line or canal running down each leg with an outlet in the bottom of the foot. Out of this hole oozes pus and filth his body cannot pass into its system fast enough. Some of this pus gets into the meat of the pig.

Yeah, it sounds like propaganda. Pigs are really clean animals and will only relieve themselves in a corner. They never eat feces from what I have seen.
They will eat "garbage" but honestly many of us throw out perfectly good food, so if we feed our leftovers to pigs, so be it.

There are often real reasons for things in the Bible. When most of the Bible was written, people traveled about, with sheep and goats. Imagine what would happen if you started traveling about with a band of unruly, rooting hogs. They don't fit that lifestyle. Add to it the poor setup to cook meat, pork might be dangerous, 2000 years ago.
But, as has been detailed above, pork is safe.

I wonder about the snake bite part. There isn't much blood in the fat layer that covers a pig. Pig blood coagulates very fast. I have no facts to back it up, but I would guess a pig could take a snake bite better than a human.

I've seen dogs and cats eat some awful stuff, yet most folks don't mind a lick on the face or let them sleep in their bed.

Next time I'm carving up some pork, I'll look for that toxin vein that outlets in the foot. LOL

I would just let them be, delete the email and go on with my day but IF I were so inclined to respond to it I would simply ask them, if their God told them not to eat pork why they felt the need to seek out (false) scientific evidence to support it? Is their God's word not enough for them to be satisfied? And if not, why is he their God?

I wonder about the snake bite part. There isn't much blood in the fat layer that covers a pig. Pig blood coagulates very fast. I have no facts to back it up, but I would guess a pig could take a snake bite better than a human.

The thing about pigs handling snake bites better than humans is really just a myth. The toxicity of any snake venom is dependent upon many variables but, in general, snake venom is just as toxic to a pig as to a human.

Venom injected into fat absorbs more slowly than venom injected below the fat layer. But it doesn't just stay there, it still makes it into the lymphatic system. You also have to think about what parts of the body are most involved in snake bites. Most human snake bites happen to the hands; most pig snake bites happen on its face or lower legs. A snake will not pounce on the back of a pig where the thickest fat layer is; it will bite the face or lower legs where the fat layer is relatively thin.

However, rattlesnake bites rarely kill any human or pig. It just isn't that (relatively) toxic.

I remember reading about old methods where the pigs were raised on cow manure. Cow manure does have a lot of nutrients left in it and the grass is digested enough for the pigs to get the nutrition. I wasn't crazy about the idea but I could see that it would work pretty well. But fermented chicken manure being fed to cows???

For the first time, researchers have developed a genetically altered animal model for cystic fibrosis (CF) that closely matches the characteristics of the disease in humans. By studying the complex and multi-organ disease process in the pig model, researchers can now better understand how the complications of CF develop, an advancement that may lead to new avenues for research in prevention and treatment.

I wonder if these people have a love one needing a valve would they be willing to use the humble pig or die
So you know, a porcine valve replacement is actually taken from the heart of a pig. I know that sounds a little odd…. But, porcine valves have been used in heart valve replacement surgery for over 20 years. That makes pig valves a very safe and very credible alternative for patients requiring valve replacement